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Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made that clear when
he told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast Friday how U.S. officials must plan
for the possibility that Vladimir Putin's Russia has access to American battle plans
and other secrets possibly taken by classified leaker Edward Snowden.
"If I'm concerned about anything, I'm concerned about defense capabilities that he may have
stolen from where he worked, and does that knowledge then get into the hands of our adversaries
— in this case, of course, Russia," Flynn said of the former National Security Agency
contractor who fled to Moscow to seek asylum. A hero to some and traitor to others, Snowden
last year disclosed details of the vast U.S. surveillance network put in place after the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including how the government keeps records on billions
of phone calls for possible use in terrorism investigations.
Flynn said he worried about what else Snowden knows, and how Russia -- where Snowden lives
now -- may have access to the documents. He cited intelligence capabilities, operational
capabilities, technology and weapons systems as potential subjects of so far unpublicized
information Snowden -- and Russia -- may have. "We really don't know" what Snowden's got,
Flynn said, adding that "we have to assume the worst case and then begin to make some
recommendations to our leadership about how do we mitigate some of the risks that may
come from what may have been compromised." He added that the intelligence community also
must assume that Russia either already has the information taken by Snowden or is trying
to get it, adding "that would be very serious." Because of the possibility, "we have to make
some judgments, recommendations about ... how to respond to that," Flynn said.